Though Boccaccio and Dante, Petrarch and Machiavelli wrote some of the most powerful pieces of literature, the libreria of Antonio Grossi and his wife Vitaliana Ciancamerla is quiet most days. The Italians don't read much, Vitaliana confesses.

Instead the Grossi family shop, which has been in existence for 100 years, mostly supplies textbooks to local schools. Once a card shop where residents could purchase greetings for birthdays and holidays, the shelves are now stocked with the thrillers of Stephen King and John Grisham, translated of course.

Harry Potter is the best-selling work of the moment, though university students still buy the classics.

Though Antonio traveled to Rome for 28 years to work for Renault cars, his wife continued to help Antonio's father with the family business, while raising their young daughter.

Antonio strides energetically down the street towards the shop, nodding to each person he happens to pass. Born in Cagli and having returned four years ago after his father's death, Antonio knows the inhabitants well. Though he will never get rich as a purveyor of the written word in a city where "talking" is the number one medium of communication.